Carbon nanotubes exhibit interesting and useful electrical properties, and may be utilized for a variety of devices. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs), having single-molecule-thick walls, have been found to be particularly useful in a variety of implementations, including integrated molecular electronic devices and chemical sensors. These devices may be implemented, for example, in chemical and biological species detection and identification, microelectronics circuitry, medical devices, environmental monitoring, medical/clinical diagnosis and biotechnology for gene mapping and drug discovery. For general information regarding carbon nanotubes, and for specific information regarding SWNTs and its applications, reference may be made generally to the above-mentioned patent documents, and also to: “Carbon Nanotubes: Synthesis, Structure, Properties and Applications,” M. S. Dresselhaus, G. Dresselhaus and Ph. Avouris (Eds.), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, New York, 2001; and “T. Single-shell Carbon Nanotubes of 1-nm Diameter,” Iijima, S. & Ichihashi, Nature 363, 603-605 (1993).
In these and other carbon nanotube implementations, nanotube devices exhibiting both high functionality and high flexibility are desirable. For instance, in electrical applications, the ability to manipulate electrical characteristics of a device to target the device's electrical behavior to a particular implementation increases the device's functionality and flexibility. Similarly, in chemical sensors, the ability to tailor a sensor for sensing a particular molecular species is also advantageous. In previous carbon nanotube implementations, however, achieving such high functionality and flexibility has been challenging.